NEW DELHI: On the heels of a humiliating electoral defeat, former Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu was sentenced to one year’s rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court on Thursday in a 1988 road rage case in which a 65-year-old man died from fist-blow injuries.
Admitting that the March 15, 2018 judgment by a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar, was unduly lenient in letting off Sidhu with a fine of Rs 1,000 in a case under Section 323 of IPC (voluntarily causing hurt), a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjay K Kaul imposed one year’s rigorous imprisonment on the former Indian cricketer, in addition to the fine. However, the bench refused to expand the scope of the offence to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304-II of IPC.